The GeoVidyaa Geography Centre of Excellence is here!
In collaboration with the Army Public School, Bangalore, TIIGS is pleased to announce the formation of the GeoVidyaa Geography Centre of Excellence. (Here are details of and invitation to the inauguration)
The Centre will offer may activities for teachers and students to further geography education. Here, students and teachers will not be merely passive consumers of geographic knowledge, they will also produce geographic knowledge.
The Army Public School is known for its innovations in all-round education for students. The Centre fits in well with the efforts of both the School and TIIGS.
What is the context of the Centre?
Unimaginative syllabi, ill-equipped teachers and educational institutions, and ill-planned curricula conspire to kill any enthusiasm and aptitude a student may have for geography. The 21st century world and its market place of ideas require a robust geography component that is combined with the powers of computer technology to the application of geographical skills.
In India, these are not available to students even in the so-called ‘upper’ or ‘elite’ or ‘international’ schools. What then to say of the non-English language medium schools? Denied the combination of adequate grounding in English, computer-supported skills, and geography education many students in lower socio-economic strata are left out of the intellectual and economic opportunities in India.
Students’ right to a socio-economically, culturally, and politically empowering education is being undermined.
This needs to be addressed.
The Centre will play a nodal role for decentralized and networked resource and capacity-building in schools across the country. These will build on the efforts of many organizations (e.g., NGOs) working to prove basic schooling.
The Centre will provide them a variety of next-level capacities that can truly empower students to become agents of change in all walks of life.
Request:
In this effort, we seek many kinds of partners. We have found some already and we need others who bring other resources to help with this cause.
We would prefer long-term partnerships, as this is effort is a process, not an event.
Please contact us for further dialogue.
Chandra Shekhar Balachandran, Ph.D.
Director
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